HRComatrix

So, you cross each other through the elevator, or halls of the company... This one never smiles.You wonder, people wonder... According to Holtz in Wall Street Journal  people who think that they are in a position of power would have a tendency to smile less, or not to smile back. According to a research from The University of California  in San Diego "a smile can embody workplace authority". The research used facial electromyography method. It recorded involuntary facial muscles movements. They concluded that "when people felt they were powerful themselves, they would rarely return a high-ranking person's smile" and "those who felt more powerless, however, automatically mimicked everyone else's smile, regardless of rank." There is a large bank on related research on UCSD 's site should you be interested in reading further on the subject. One thing is sure, there are intricacies between emotions, perceptions, culture and reactions wh...

So, you've got a new boss. How do you like him?  You do not know what to think of him. Let's call him Full Smith. He has been your new boss for a few weeks now. You have an open mind and you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. He sure comes across as assertive, not necessarily imposing. Just very assertive. Let's just say that lately, he has been qualified otherwise by one of his peers. We will call him assertive and aggressive at tackling his business. Assertive to the point that by his first ten days on the job he had made 80% of the women in the department cry. Crying for what? Different reasons. They were either enraged or probably "just" offended. They all said they they felt demeaned however.  And you, you are a man. Not much of a man do you think because it came to your mind that maybe you should resign. This boss never acknowledges your little accomplishments. He points out  at your failures. It is a constant reminder.  By now you feel like...

Did you ever wonder about lack of engagement, loss of morale, decline in productivity? Of course. And the more it happened, the more we pushed because we had our goals to meet. HR usually does not deal with that type of issue. At least not to the extent of line managers do. We do witness the struggles, and managers are - seriously - held accountable for their results. What about HR people?  Is the decline in productivity and lack of engagement in an organization the reflection of line managers not meeting their goals or HR not being accountable for its own? Maybe both with some intricacies.  Clinton Wingrove , HR consultant, raised questions about lack of accountability of HR people . With good reasons? I let you reflect on the issue. Granted, consultants view things slightly differently than those who are in "operations", and get "excited" about it. But that's what being a consultant is about. One point, however: HR reflects a couple of things: 1) The cult...

Oops! I can imagine eyebrows raising. The notion of fun can differ from one person to another. Some recollection of "fun HR times' could be of when incentives had different names and different forms. Maybe it was when HR derived from union formation. For the longest time, HR was to almost be a "band aid" to counteract the effects of harsh working conditions. Over time, HR had become viewed as "fun" by some: party trays, Christmas party, various forms of encouragement . And again, over time, to those who viewed HR practice as such (fun), HR had become overly complicated, "professional." Perception of HR can differ from one person to another. But I think that for the common employee, HR has too faces: the "good", caring face translating in employee incentives and nice benefits, and the "ugly", evil face translating in policies, procedures, rules and regulations, and legalities. This "two-face" HR has been omnipr...

Rhonda Knisley asked if your daily practices show that Your Employees Really Matter To You? (HRToolbox ). It appears that managers seem to be immune to sanctions when it comes to "errors" or "mistakes" in some organizations. Common observation of employees is that too often managers are not held accountable for their actions, except in some circumstances when they do not play along with office politics. And I mean "office politics," which is often interpreted and communicated as "company policy" throughout a unit organization. Of course, it is more than correct for a supervisor to stand for their managers in front of a crowd. As a supervisor, you support and correct, and some apologies might be in order in certain circumstances, along the way. But isn'it out of line to cover their mistakes in a permanent and consistent fashion, do their projects, close a blind eye on their repeated mishaps on the basis that they are new to the job...

A current article from Ann Welsh in HRToolbox entitled " Don't Let Your Age or Life Stage Get in the Way of You and Your Dreams " has been so inspirational to me. Although I have encountered, listened to, and helped so many people who are facing that very same problem, I realize that it remains almost a "taboo" subject. We do not like talking seriously about the triangle of age, dreams, and life circumstances because conscientiously or not we think that it would not be "adult-like" to revisit this subject.  Ann Welsh found inspirations for her article in  Barbara Crowley 's September 1st 2012 The New York Times article, and from a writing by Judith Timson in The Globe and Mail as well. We can get discouraged by so many things. People may crush your dreams, or due to life circumstances you might have "given up"on them. While it is ok to recognize our weaknesses, we also need to not "let go" of our dreams without a fight...

On Fearful Employees: What should the Production Manager do? The issue here is about frustrated and fearful employees. They fear retaliation and therefore do not "voice their disgust with the Company." So, what should the production manager do? ( http://hr.toolbox.com/people/hrpractitioner/ ) This is why engagement survey results cannot be taken for granted. However, I have observed that employees would be more open to answer freely if they are assured that their direct supervisor, or production manager cannot view the answers. In any event, it is important that surveys be anonymous and taken out of sight of direct supervisors. In the event that the survey happens to be in the form of an open discussion, it is obvious that results could not be valid nor reliable to a great extent. Maybe the question here is not about an engagement survey. Is it about having a discussion group in the context of process improvement? In that event, there is a need for a neut...